Jiggle

In the Tirreno-Adriatico TTT, dude's front trispoke just disintegrates while he's jra.

*jiggle casts a suspicious eye over to his carbon bike*

Nightmare fuel for sure.

Video to come.

Ajkollme

Wow that carbon wheel actually exploded. I'm selling my carbon frame immediately.

Dan333SP

This is weird. Why does he start the video outside the paceline to the right, coasting and looking down? And why is there another Sky rider off to his right detached from the group?

I have no idea what happened, but if I were to guess, they either hit some debris as a group and he suffered the worst effects, or there was a collision between riders that didn't cause anyone to go down but did cause his front wheel to take a whack and develop a crack that failed.

Either way, definitely selling my crabon ASAP.

WhyFi

My guess would be flat or glue failure followed by riding the rim and assplosion.

Dan333SP

Maybe his mechanic used some Tufo tape removal solvent?

gsa103

This.

If you look closely you can see that the tire has detached from the rim. Then the rim starts wobbling and pieces fly off.

TimothyH

I think you are 100% correct.

When watched full screen the video clearly shows the rider slowing and moving right, away from the other riders as the bike begins to wobble. He then starts to unclip as the tire comes off the rim just prior to the wheel hitting the pavement and failing.


-Tim-

Dan333SP

Serious question... aren't tubulars supposed to prevent exactly this sort of thing from happening vs. clinchers? You'd think pro mechanics with Sky would know how to properly glue a tire to the rim, but...

Scarbo

+1

I've seen tubulars do this before (its happened to me!); but I've never seen a clincher come off a wheel before although the tubular proponents warn us often that this is something we should live in abject fear of.

Dan333SP

To be fair, I've had a clincher roll off the rim when I got a sidewall gash while leaned over in a fast corner. It "hooked" on one of the rear brake pads and instantly locked the wheel. Still not sure how I didn't wreck.

Psimet2001 

They keep replaying it on the feed but haven't gotten a good look at it yet. May have been a tire roll that led to the failure. Maybe not. At this point it's just guessing.

Dan333SP

This is as good a place as any to share my slowmo video of Sky TTT'ing from Worlds here in 2015. Note that the trispokes do not assplode but do look cool.


For reference, I ride that hill in my little ring at maybe 14 mph. Those guys were going up it at about 28mph.

bikemig 

Fake news, move along

FlashBazbo

Exactly.

FlashBazbo

I wonder if that glue was delivered in an unmarked box in the middle of the night.

FBinNY 

+1, you can see the tire rolling before the wheel broke. Odds are the failure was at least partly caused by the wheel striking the pavement at a slight angle to the direction of roll. That imparts a side stress and should it happen between spokes could cause the failure.

Don't read this as excusing the wheel's maker entirely because flats and tire rolling are known possibilities, and wheels should be able to tolerate that without failure. I'm just saying that it's not a spontaneous JRA failure without a known cause.

noodle soup

Sounds about right.

Wheel failures decimate Team Sky's Tirreno-Adriatico ambitions | Cyclingnews.com

FBinNY 

Actually, based on the article's description of three failures, I think it warrants a closer look. In the video it appears that the tire rolled before the wheel broke, but it's also possible that one segment broke at one end, slackening the tire and starting the roll.

Like a police detective, I suspect coincidences, and while one wheel might be explained by a pothole or tire rolling, 3 wheels and 3 potholes stretches my credulity to the breaking point, and I prefer to believe that the wheels are underbuilt or otherwise defective rather than any team having that kind of bad luck.

DXchulo

They say he hit a hole, but the video doesn't really show it.

It starts too late. He's already wobbly and knows something is wrong.

Jiggle

Sounds like the lead rider took the group over some potholes, then the light wheels began falling apart. There's already more weight on the front in a TT position and it's harder to unweight at the last moment.

rpenmanparker 

Can't be. I rode mine this morning without incident.

cold turtle

Especially on those extra-heavy Sky TT bikes.

himespau 

I wonder how much the wheel manufacturer will have to pay for a mechanic to be fired because he "didn't glue the tires on right"?

CliffordK

A pothole sounds like a likely explanation.

The video starts with the rider experiencing a wicked shimmy.
Then the tire appears to come off, followed by the rim disintegrating.

But, if the rim was broken, it would release the tension in part holding the tire to the wheel (and the tire also likely is holding the remnants of the wheel together). Brake rub? Then as the tire comes off, and the bare rim hits the pavement without protection, and without the tire holding it together, it just disintegrates.

There appears to be an odd flat spot in the rim opposite to where the rim broke. Perhaps from the impact of rolling the tire, or perhaps from the earlier pothole.

cycledogg

From the experience I have had with tri spoke TT wheels, they are fairly beefy and should not have failed the way it happened at Tirreno-Adriatico. Of course I have not seen the holes that the riders are speaking of. And Shimano is not commenting yet on their wheels. ( I do believe they are Shimano PRO wheels?) 3 wheel fails in with one team Time Trial just seems "odd" to have this type of product failure. I think they need to look into this very hard, starting with the mechanic for the glue process, then riders, and wheel sponsor. This is a good example of Chinese wheel vs. Brand name wheel.